Interested in free scooter parking throughout New York City?
Remember the study that said "if Americans were to utilize one of the latest eco-friendly motor scooters for just 10 percent of their everyday travel, they could potentially reduce national fuel consumption by 14 million gallons of gasoline per day and decrease carbon dioxide emissions by 324 million pounds per day?" Well, in an effort to make that a reality, Piaggio, through their Vespa brand's Vespanomics marketing strategy, is making an effort to make free scooter parking legal in New York. To make this happen, Piaggio Group has "instituted free parking for two-wheel vehicles in Edison ParkFast garages", at the following locations:
- Chinatown -- 174 Centre Street, between Hester and Canal Streets
- Midtown -- 412-422 W. 33rd Street, between 9th and 10th Avenues
- Theater District -- 1120 Avenue of the Americas, near 44th Street
- Tribeca -- 15-21 Worth Street, between Worth Street and West Broadway
Not living in New York, I don't think that this will help me any, at least not in the short term. Long term, however, Piaggio's hope is that if a demonstrable number of scooters park for free at their sponsored locales, New York might see the need to take action on the matter and open other areas up without prompting from Piaggio. And if New York makes those changes, other cities may follow suit. Not too much help in Toledo, but it's a start! If you'd like to add your name to the list of those who think this is a good idea, click here.
[Source: Piaggio, Vespanomics]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Peter Hansen 1:08PM (7/12/2007)
There was a time when you could park a two-wheeler for free at either Madison Square (at the corner of Madison and E23d Streets) or at Battery Park. A few years ago, the city renovated Madison Square Park and eliminated the free parking zone. The same thing happened to the traffic island used for motorcycle parking at Battery Park when they rebuilt the road.
With these changes, the City killed something wonderful. It was great to park your MC there and connect with other urban bikers as they did the same.
But then the City is notoriously anti-personal vehicle. Parking spaces sell for as much as $250K because of City laws that limit the number of new garages that can be built.
Scooter riders simply park on the sidewalk and remove their license plates. Most city scooters have quick-disconnect mechanisms for this purpose. I never did this with my motorcycle. The City is notoriously fickle and you never know when the order to simply sieze such vehicles will come down the next time that the municipal coffers start to run low.
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John 6:02PM (7/20/2007)
Did some Googling on the issue of parking and found: http://www.nycgarages.com - it let's you compare all parking garage rates in New York City -- monthly and daily.
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john 9:16AM (9/23/2007)
I HEARD THE CITY RECENTLY SEIZED SOOTERS AND MC'S IN THE WEST VILLAGE AROUND MORTON AND HUDSON ST. DOES ANYONE KNOW ABOUT THIS?
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